It’s a hot August night in San Francisco in 1966. Compton’s Cafeteria, in the seedy Tenderloin district, is hopping with its usual assortment of transgender people, young street hustlers, and down-and-out regulars. The management, annoyed by the noisy crowd at one table, calls the police. When a surly cop, accustomed to manhandling Compton’s clientele, attempts to arrest one of the queens, she throws her coffee in his face. Mayhem erupts — windows break, furniture flies through the air. Police reinforcements arrive, and the fighting spills into the street. For the first time, the drag queens band together to fight back, getting the better of the cops, whom they kick and stomp with their high-heeled shoes and beat with their heavy purses. For everyone at Compton’s that night, one thing was certain — things would never be the same again.

Screaming Queens introduces viewers to a diverse cast of former prostitutes, drag entertainers, police officers, ministers and neighborhood activists, all of whom played a part in the events leading up to the Compton’s Cafeteria riot. Mixing recent interviews with archival footage, printed documents, impressionistic reenactments and period music, the program depicts a marginalized community few people know, one that exists in the midst of a city famous for its cosmopolitan glamour. With extraordinary candor and from differing points of view, the subjects recount the difficulties they encountered in the Tenderloin, as well as the sense of community they created there in the mid-1960s. Felicia Elizondo tells of prostituting herself in order to survive. Aleshia Brevard, a drag entertainer, describes how her talent spared her from street prostitution. Perhaps most surprising is Sgt. Elliot Blackstone, who helps explain the conflict between the San Francisco Police Department and the city’s transgender community and how the SFPD’s policies changed to reflect greater acceptance in the years following the 1966 riot.

The documentary goes on to show the connection between transgender activism and the larger social upheavals affecting the United States in the 1960s: the civil rights and sexual liberation movements, the youth counterculture, urban renewal, and Great Society antipoverty programs. “Glide Memorial Methodist Church first reached out to the transgender community in these years,” the Rev. Ed Hansen explains, “because of new thinking about the church’s role in society.” Amanda St. Jaymes and Tamara Ching, both transsexual activists and former prostitutes, recount the ferment in the Tenderloin in the 1960s as well as the growing sense of dignity among transgender people. But in the summer of 1966, many others, including most San Francisco police officers, did not share these new ideas. By bringing these social and political tensions to light, Screaming Queens offers viewers a fuller understanding of the events and conditions that led up to the riot.

Further, Screaming Queens explores the reverberations, both large and small, of the rise of transgender activism, a story in which the riot at Compton’s Cafeteria plays a pivotal role. Sgt. Blackstone tells of singing “We Shall Overcome” with Tenderloin activists who successfully fought for new social services for their community. Suzie Cooke recounts her job as a transsexual counselor in one of the new agencies founded after the riot. Ching connects the Tenderloin transsexuals’ new activism to the rising Gay liberation movement. And St. Jaymes explains that although the queens from Compton’s were “wild as the wind,” they were “determined to make something of themselves, and be something other than prostitutes.”

The film ends on a high note. It shows how in just two short years transgender activism helped transform San Francisco culture in subtle and profound ways and presents reflective comments from the Compton’s Cafeteria subjects who bravely ushered in a controversial revolution that continues today.

Screaming Queens sets out to foster a better understanding of the experiences of transgender people and to inform a broad audience of their often-difficult lives and unheralded accomplishments. Along the way, the program also illuminates the interplay of urban politics, community mobilization and social services in creating the modern inner city.

This important documentary tells a forgotten San Francisco story of dramatic social change from the compelling perspective of firsthand participants. The film’s story focuses on the experiences of the rioters themselves, the police and the social-activist clergy members. It also follows historian Susan Stryker’s rediscovery of the 1966 disturbance at Compton’s Cafeteria. At that time, transgender people faced serious employment discrimination, police harassment and other difficulties. The program’s subjects describe the challenging circumstances and the misconduct of officials that drove them to take militant action in the streets. Screaming Queens then examines the significant changes — in police practices, social services and self-image — that came out of the conflict. In her story within the story, Stryker reveals how the Compton’s Cafeteria riot, although not as large as New York’s Stonewall conflict, was a dramatic turning point in a decades-long process of transgender community formation and political mobilization in San Francisco, a process that involved dramatic changes in medical practices, urban politics, neighborhood geography and public consciousness.

Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria is produced in association with The Independent Television Service (ITVS) and KQED Public Television.

]]>Last Day of Freedomhttps://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/last-day-of-freedom/
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 04:00:26 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/?p=1316Watch the preview for the Academy Award-nominated Last Day of Freedom by filmmakers Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman.

Bill Babbitt supported the death penalty … until it came knocking at his door.

Bill fondly recalls early life with his brother Manny, but a childhood car accident leaves Manny forever changed. Two tours in Vietnam only compound Manny’s mental health issues. After the war, bouts of paranoia leave him living on the streets. Concerned about his brother, Bill and his family invite Manny to come live with them in Sacramento. One day, however, Bill makes a shocking discovery that leaves him with an impossible choice: cover for his brother … or turn him in.

In this deeply personal animated short, Bill explores his attempt to do the “right” thing as familial bonds, mental illness and murder tug a close relationship in conflicting directions.

Last Day of Freedom has won numerous awards, including the Jury Award for Best Short at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival; the Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award at Full Frame; the Justice for All Award at the (In) Justice Film Festival; and the audience award at SF DocFest.

Oakland made it onto two “top” lists: Top Five travel destinations in the U.S., and Top Five most dangerous cities. Once a month, those two realities meet at First Friday.

What started as simple art crawl on the first Friday of every month has grown into a cross-cultural and intergenerational event drawing thousands of people to downtown Oakland for food, entertainment and every kind of art imaginable. The event’s popularity has fueled the city’s larger cultural and economic renaissance. But after a teenager was murdered during one of the events, the future of First Fridays is uncertain.

First Friday follows several Oakland residents as they prepare for one evening’s event and confront the tension between gentrification and inequality.

Resources

]]>Everything Comes from the Streetshttps://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/everything-comes-from-the-streets/
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 02:00:00 +0000http://kqed2.wsmtechs.net/trulyca/everything-comes-from-the-streets/Everything Comes from the Streets, including the creative men and women who pioneered and shaped the unique car customizing tradition among Chicano and Mexican communities.]]>Watch this entire Truly CA episode: Everything Comes from the Streets by filmmaker Alberto Pulido. (Running Time: 58:47)

Lowrider: it’s a term that can refer to either the car or the driver, intrinsically tying quality product and creative expression. They’re special. They’re powerful. They represent. San Diego and the surrounding borderlands have legacies richly rooted in community organizing and lowriding, and it came from the streets.

A celebration of souped-up customized automobiles, Alberto Pulido’s Everything Comes from the Streets does exactly what its title implies, creating an engaging film that comes straight from the folks on ground level. Jacket and car clubs like Los Amigos and Female Ladies Pride played key roles in structuring the community and establishing Chicano/a identity.

The 1970 takeover and establishment of San Diego’s world-famous Chicano Park, home to the country’s largest outdoor collection of murals, became a focal point of social change that went hand-in-hand with modified lowriders. Branding your car was a statement and sometimes you had to get creative and go to extremes, like using airplane landing gears, if you were going to stand out while cruising or in hopping contests. As car artist Robert Martinez puts it, “This… looks like a million cars sitting on the street, so I’m going to do it different.”

Co-produced by Kelly Whalen and Rigo Reyes, Everything Comes from the Streets packs a wealth of rare archival photography, custom vehicles and intimate chats with lowriders, some of whom have been at it since the 1950s. But it’s not just automobile eye candy. The film celebrates the origins, history and craft of lowriding through the accounts of creative Latino men and women who established a unique tradition and forever left their mark on the San Diego landscape.

Resources

]]>Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Seahttps://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/plagues-and-pleasures-on-the-salton-sea/
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 01:00:00 +0000http://kqed2.wsmtechs.net/trulyca/plagues-and-pleasures-on-the-salton-sea/ Plagues and Pleasures explores the economic, political and environmental issues that face the Salton Sea, a one-time vacation destination for the rich and famous now occupied by an eccentric and individualistic populace.]]>

Once known as the “California Riviera,” the Salton Sea is now considered one of America’s worst ecological disasters: a fetid, stagnant, salty lake, coughing up dead fish and birds by the thousands. “Accidentally” created by an engineering error in 1905, reinvented in the ’50s as a world class vacation destination for the rich and famous, and then suddenly abandoned after a series of hurricanes, floods, and fish die-offs, the Salton Sea has a peculiar and bittersweet past.

This surreal and apocalyptic landscape is now home to a hardy group of eccentric hangers-on, who have carved out their own slice of paradise on the shores of this environmental train wreck. As if living on the banks of a man-made mistake wasn’t challenging enough, the sea’s most unique community now faces a new struggle. Residents are being threatened by the nearby megalopolises of Los Angeles and San Diego, which are poised to snatch up the agricultural run-off that barely sustains the sea. The fate of this so-called ecological time bomb and the community that surrounds it remain uncertain, as the Salton Sea might just dry up.

Narrated by cult-movie legend John Waters, Plagues & Pleasures is an epic western tale of fantastic real estate ventures and failed boomtowns, inner-city gang flight to white small town America, and the subjective nature of success and failure amidst the landscape of the American Dream.

Resources

]]>Gumby Dharmahttps://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/gumby-dharma/
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000http://kqed2.wsmtechs.net/trulyca/gumby-dharma/ Gumby Dharma takes us on a journey through the life and career of spiritual seeker Art Clokey, whose famous characters, Gumby and Pokey, and Davy and Goliath, echoed the spiritual path of their creator.]]>

This is the story of Art Clokey, who in 1954 took a humble slab of clay and molded it into the cartoon legend Gumby. At once quirky and colorful, heartbreaking and redemptive, Gumby Dharma takes us on a journey through the life and career of a spiritual seeker whose famous characters, Gumby and Pokey, and Davy and Goliath, echoed the spiritual path of their creator. It’s a journey that leads us from an orphanage to adored adopted father, from the Seminary to Hollywood, from nuclear family to hippie counterculture, and from the traditional Episcopalian church to Buddhism and Indian guru Sai Baba.

Gumby Dharma features candid and revealing interviews with an 85-year-old Clokey, vivid scenes from Gumby episodes, home movies shot by Art when he was a kid, and interviews with contemporary leaders in animation, including Director Henry Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach) and special effects legend Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, Adventures of Sinbad). Also included is new stop motion animation of Gumby and Pokey, who narrate this playful and touching homage to the grandfather of clay animation, Art Clokey.

]]>Sons of a Gunhttps://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/sons-of-a-gun/
Fri, 01 Apr 2016 23:00:00 +0000http://kqed2.wsmtechs.net/trulyca/sons-of-a-gun/Sons of a Gun tells the story of Lance, Craig and Ubaldo, who live with schizophrenia. They also live with Larry, their troubled alcoholic caregiver. Though not related by blood, this unlikely family has been together for 20 years.]]>Watch this entire Truly CA episode: Sons of a Gun by filmmakers Greg O’Toole and Rivkah Beth Medow. (Running Time: 57:50)

Please note: This program contains language and subject matter that are adult in nature. Viewer discretion is advised.

Sons of a Gun features Larry, who is equally proud of his hostage negotiator credentials and the fact that he owes the IRS over a million dollars. A loving “dad,” he makes sure his “sons” have three square meals a day and take the proper medications. When Larry and his family are evicted, he gets them a room at a local motel while he searches for a new apartment. Lance, Craig and Ubaldo enjoy their relative freedom with Larry, especially compared to the hard times in their pasts, which include living on the streets and in mental institutions.

Like many families, this one is full of good times and laughter, but with the looming threat of homelessness, Larry’s drinking gets worse. His fights with Craig, Lance and the law threaten to unravel the family and undermine his ability to find a new home. Each of the “sons” has a personal reason for remaining with Larry, but those reasons are tested by the close quarters and discomforts of four men living in one cramped motel room.

Everyone believes that the yet-to-be found new apartment will keep the family together, but when Larry finally finds a rental, the family’s troubles get worse. Larry winds up in the hospital, and the guys must grapple with the question, “Should Larry be taking care of people? And really, who’s taking care of whom here?”

Resources

]]>Standhttps://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/stand/
Fri, 01 Apr 2016 22:00:28 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/?p=1380Stand depicts South LA residents using krump dancing to take a stand and is part of the episode Truly CA Shorts: State of Discovery, which features five short films exploring the California experience.]]>Watch the Truly CA film: Stand by filmmaker Melanie D’Andrea. (Running Time: 21:05)

A dance style from South Los Angeles, “krump” has taken street dance to a new level by adding percussive movements and providing a safe and cathartic way for at-risk youth to express their emotions. Stand follows a krump group called Demolition Crew, which has become a nexus for its community, offering an alternative to gangs and a healthy outlet for aggression. Krucial the Liberator, one of the crew’s leaders, says, “Krump was created to let out those harsher emotions.”

This film is part of the episode Truly CA Shorts: State of Discovery, which includes these films:

Resources

]]>It Came from Kucharhttps://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/it-came-from-kuchar/
Fri, 01 Apr 2016 21:00:00 +0000http://kqed2.wsmtechs.net/trulyca/it-came-from-kuchar/It Came from Kuchar interweaves the brother's lives, their admirers and a 'greatest hits' of Kuchar clips into a hilarious and moving tale.]]>Watch this entire Truly CA episode: It Came from Kuchar by filmmaker Jennifer Kroot. (Running Time: 1:28:48)

By the 1960s, twins George and Mike Kuchar were shaping the underground film scene alongside Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger. The embodiment of artistic obsession, compulsion, and inspiration, the Kuchars began making no-budget epics in their Bronx neighborhood as kids. Known as the “8mm Mozarts,” the Kuchar brothers openly explored their strict Catholic upbringing and sexual anxiety with campy, irreverent theatrics. Their films have inspired many filmmakers, including John Waters, Atom Egoyan, Guy Maddin, Buck Henry, and Wayne Wang, all interviewed in the film.

Tired of the twins’ gimmick, the Kuchar’s work partnership split so they could explore their own distinct styles. George was outrageously funny, childlike, and prolific, while Mike was deeply consumed with the mysteries of the universe. Nonetheless, the twins shared many motifs: sexuality and obsession, the occult and UFOs, insecurity and loneliness, weather and nature, comics, and perhaps their strongest bond, humor. Like George and Mike, It Came from Kuchar is quirky, outrageous and invigorating — a film about two brothers who loved to make movies and how their DIY passion has inspired others.

This documentary profiles Heklina, who is the founder and hostess of Trannyshack, San Francisco’s longest-running drag show. Performing since 1996, she appears in local theater (including parodies of the popular television shows: Sex in the City, Golden Girls, and Roseanne). In addition to Trannyshack, she also produces and hosts Daytime Realness and gay pride activities.

From her early days growing up in Iceland, a discharge from the Navy, overcoming drugs and alcohol, Heklina has emerged as one of the premiere performers in the alternative drag scene in San Francisco and beyond. Heklina takes you into the world of alternative drag through the perspective of one of its key players.

Resources

]]>Witch Hunthttps://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/witch-hunt/
Fri, 01 Apr 2016 19:01:00 +0000http://kqed2.wsmtechs.net/trulyca/witch-hunt/Witch Hunt, a startling indictment of the American justice system. Dozens of innocent, working class parents in Bakersfield, California are wrongly convicted of child molestation as a result of severe misconduct and "cowboy law enforcement" perpetuated under the watch of Kern County's District Attorney in the 1980s.]]>Watch this entire Truly CA episode: Witch Hunt by filmmakers Don Hardy and Dana Nachman. (Running Time: 1:28:28)

On the night John Stoll was roused from his bed and carted off to jail, he had no idea what was in store.

“Aren’t you worried?” his lawyer wondered.

“Hell no, I ain’t worried,” John answered. “I didn’t do this. You can’t convict me of something I didn’t do.”

Stoll was incarcerated for more than two decades before The Innocence Project proved he was telling the truth.

John Stoll was not alone. In a startling indictment of the American justice system, Witch Hunt chronicles how dozens of innocent working class parents in Bakersfield, California, were convicted of horrific sex abuse crimes during the 1980’s. Thanks to an atmosphere of “cowboy law enforcement” perpetuated under the watch of Kern County District Attorney Ed Jagels, key child witnesses were encouraged to lie on the stand as they described disturbing testimony of sexual and Satanic rituals. Often, it was their own parents who were put behind bars.

Through new interviews, archival footage and narration by executive producer Sean Penn, Witch Hunt illustrates a universal point: when power is allowed to exist without oversight, the rights of everyday citizens can become lost for decades.

At the end of a rutted road in Death Valley, a once rowdy and violent mining town now hosts a community where government and commerce have evaporated.

Welcome to Darwin, population 35.

Despite its dusty and remote exterior, Darwin is teeming with life. There are those who stayed after the mines’ closure, like Monty, a retired miner who has found the artist within. Others have joined the community more recently, like Ryal and her partner Penny, two twenty-somethings who found refuge in the desert while Ryal undergoes the transition from female to male. Susan the postmaster has the only job in Darwin, but she isn’t there for the paycheck. Many in the town have struggled with drugs, crime and tragedy, but in Darwin, the townspeople take pride in the fact that they are judged not by their past sins, but by who they are today.

The living may not be easy, but in Darwin, people live life on their own terms.

Resources

]]>Bob and the Monsterhttps://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/bob-and-the-monster/
Fri, 01 Apr 2016 17:00:00 +0000http://kqed2.wsmtechs.net/trulyca/bob-and-the-monster/Bob and the Monster features interviews with Courtney Love and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.]]>See a preview of this Truly CA episode.

Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll? Yes. But in the case of Bob Forrest, frontman of L.A. post-punk band Thelonious Monster, the story comes with the added twist of redemption and healing. Featuring testimony from Courtney Love, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and other key 90’s musicians who reigned amid Doc Martens and baby doll dresses, Keirda Bahruth’s Bob and the Monster chronicles the raucous life and times of the music icon. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that in Bahruth’s hands, the film uses “drug addiction not as human-freakshow fodder but as the starting point for a provocative argument about treatment strategies.”

Tracing Bob’s extraordinary life, from a traumatic childhood event through decades of poverty, Bob and the Monster follows the typical rock ‘n’ roll story of a rise and drug-induced fall from fame. But life changes drastically and Bob’s road to sobriety takes surprising turns that allow him to bounce back from the bottom and move in a direction no one could have expected.

Stunning Liquid TV-style claymation and never before seen archival performances paint a picture of a man picking up shattered pieces and becoming a committed addiction advocate. Celebrity radio personality Dr. Drew said of Bob Forrest, “I’ve watched his development from being somebody who had a solid program of recovery who was just trying to be of assistance, to somebody who has a very sophisticated understanding of the complexities of neurobiological, psychiatric, and addiction elements in this disease.”

See the transformation. Stay for the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.

Resources

]]>SLOMOhttps://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/slomo/
Fri, 01 Apr 2016 16:00:14 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/trulyca/?p=1376SLOMO, a former neurologist recreates himself as a Venice Beach regular. SLOMO is part of the episode Truly CA Shorts: State of Discovery, which features five short films exploring the California experience.]]>Watch the Truly CA film: SLOMO by filmmakers Josh Izenberg and Amanda Micheli. (Running Time: 16:14)

“I think what I’m doing, with all due modesty, is a type of flying … The shrinks or the psychoanalysts would call it a personal delusional system.”

Neurosurgeon Dr. John Kitchin had the kind of material wealth most of us only dream of — a 12-cylinder BMW, a Ferrari, an exotic animal farm. He also spent every waking hour working at an unfulfilling job. Then one day he decided to leave the rat race. Now known to the beach locals simply as Slomo, he traded his lab coat for a pair of rollerblades and his IRA for a taste of divinity.

This film is part of the episode Truly CA Shorts: State of Discovery, which includes these films: